Cubs Sign Brian Duensing

Brian Duensing really acquitted himself well in the second half of last season after starting out in somewhat atrocious fashion. There was a significant amount of time when I thought the Cubs would be better served by simply releasing him, and I was certainly proven wrong as the season progressed. I think this is the primary reason I'm not a general manager.

2 years, $7 million is a great deal for the age-35 and age-36 seasons of what is a fine 4th option out of the pen. If the Cubs can get a closer (or just one more great reliever and figure out a closer), I'll consider the bullpen to be in a very good place.

duensing is one of those guys where, just by sheer happenstance, i never saw him throw a bad inning. so this seems like an unbelievable bargain and i will not hear any evidence that suggests otherwise. thanks in advance for your understanding.

Yeah, I agree that it’s going to piss the union off, but the next CBA is a few years away so a lot can change by then. I’d rather have seen these rules agreed to by both sides, but in the end I don’t think there’s any doubt that the game needs to be sped up. I’d like to see MLB add time outs. Each team gets 5 per game to use for anything like a mid-inning pitching change, a batter stepping out of the box, a pitcher exceeding the pitch clock and any kind of mound meeting. Those things just piss me off. Maybe 5 is too many.

If the Brewers sign Darvish the cubs are the second best team in the division. They’ve made an offer so at least they care about getting better. They’re one of few teams this offseason who give a shit about improving.

(dying laughing) I think even if you go by Phil’s +/-, the Cubs still come out behind. They lost Davis, Arrieta, Lackey, Rondon and Jay. They’ve added Chatwood, Morrow and some other reliever I can’t think of right now. They’re -2.

Jon Morosi @jonmorosi
Source: Yu Darvish is increasingly likely to sign with an @MLB team this week. #Twins are among the teams with whom he is engaged in ongoing discussions. @MLBNetwork

Oh, an MLB team, huh? I can’t wait for baseball player pitcher man Yu Darvish to sign his name in cursive on a contract paper, indicating his desired intent to join an MLB baseball sports team franchise club roster.

Tony @Tonerrrrr
My cousin has 2 tix for the super bowl paid $2500 for each ticket he didnt realize last year it was going to be the day of his wedding. If interested he is looking for someone to take his place. Her name is Lisa Phillips 5’1, about 140lbs, a good cook, She’ll be in white dress.

It’s the way he left the team — and it’s not just that one day, it’s the last couple of years he was with the Cubs and declining in productivity and complaining when Dusty wanted to drop him in the batting order…

Sammy has always been all about Sammy. While Ryne Sandberg, who left the Cubs and returned with arms wide open by the franchise, was a consummate team player, Sosa was selfish. Period.

Did he provide excitement and fun? Sure. Is that enough for me? No.

Say you’re sorry, Sammy. What would it hurt to sit down with Tom Ricketts and talk? But he won’t even do that. He holds himself above everyone.

Until he at the very least has a face-to-face with Tom Ricketts, because Tom Ricketts owns the franchise and can set whatever rules he wants to, Sammy can stay away.

You and I have talked about this for 15 years now. It still makes no sense to me that a fan behaves that way. I’m pretty upset with what the Cubs have done over the last two offseasons and some of their trades have been suspect too. I’m not going to boo them and they sure as shit don’t owe me an apology.

Not only that, it’s not going to do shit. I can’t stand McDonald’s, but it’s not going to do me any good to stand outside the place and boo them every time they open the delivery window. I’m just going to look like a dumbass.

I get that Vlad and Thome were easily better hitters than Sosa, but when you take defense into account, he’s not that far off in WAR over his career. And in terms of milestone accomplishments, hitting 60+ HR 3 times and ending with over 600 career HR is pretty incredible. I’m not sure why Vlad and Thome are automatic shoe in candidates when they played in the same PED era that Sosa played in.

Sometimes I wonder how much doing PED’s was even Sosa’s idea, and whether the team or GM played a part. At best ownership and trainers were turning a blind eye, but it wouldn’t surprise me if the FO or ownership was even encouraging PED use at the time. They had every economic incentive to do so.

Wasn’t there some player or players who commented on how the team would suggest trying PEDs and team doctors would show them how to do it? I’m almost certain it was the Red Sox. I think this would have been prior to Thoyer, but I doubt things changed much after that. In all honesty, why would a GM tell a player not to take steroids? A GM’s job is more secure the more his team wins. There’s much more money involved for him if his team wins. The front office has incentives to either encourage players to use steroids or to look the other way.

I would guarantee there have been dozens of players in the minors who were instructed by their organization (probably lower level people) to take PEDs. MLB has gotten off so easily for what happened during that era. All the anger and frustration and blame has been directed at a few guys.

” or they won’t” is not an independent clause and therefore needs no comma before it. You’d think after this many years of writing and being called out for his understanding of sentence structure he would try to work on it.

I mean, if it wasn’t for SB Nation there’s no way anyone would still be reading anything Yellon puts out.

Myles: They signed Manny Ramirez, who FAILED TWO DRUG TESTS. Seriously, Cubs should fuck off with this Sammy shit.

I think at this point there is probably something the Cubs organization knows about Sosa that everyone else doesn’t. It would literally make the Cubs money by letting him back since he was such a popular figure. There’s no incentive to keep him away.

This is probably true, but the fact they were willing to put up with whatever it was for so many years when he was producing at such a high level indicates it’s not all that important an issue to them.

dmick89: I would guarantee there have been dozens of players in the minors who were instructed by their organization (probably lower level people) to take PEDs. MLB has gotten off so easily for what happened during that era. All the anger and frustration and blame has been directed at a few guys.

i don’t disagree but i wonder why we haven’t seen any players come out and say this. i hope don’t sound like the people that don’t believe sexual assault victims (“if this guy has abused so many women then why hasn’t anyone spoken up before”) but this is obviously a completely different situation. wouldn’t you think that of the probably hundreds of people that were encouraged to do steroids, someone would have came out and said this?

actually, did jose canseco say this? i have no idea since he has zero credibility and i try to ignore him but i kind of think he might have made this claim. seems like we should have seen at least one or two others come forward though…

I don’t know what Canseco said, but the person or persons I’m thinking of were former Red Sox players.

I think the reason why we don’t hear about it is for two reasons. The players fear it could fuck with their ability to work in the future and nobody gives a shit. Most fans care about PEDs only because records were broken. Look at the long list of players who have tested positive, but have not broken any records. They’re forgiven immediately. If it came out today that every team instructed players to take PEDs, it would be a story for a day. Tomorrow we’d get back to normal and Barry Bonds would be the villain.

I’m not that worried about the pitching. I expect Lester will better and Hendricks will be worse. Quintana could be really good or just what he has been in his career, which is still good. Chatwood and Montgomery aren’t very good. It’s not great, but it’s not terrible either.

I’m more worried about the offense. Yeah, Bryant and Rizzo are good and so is Contreras. That’s about it.

I don’t know if the Brewers are better than the Cubs or not, but it’s close and that shouldn’t be. The Cubs have gone deep into the playoffs three years in a row so they have the money. This division should be a blowout every single year in favor of the Cubs. There should be no doubt the Cubs are better than the fucking Brewers.

I just don’t think we can assume Lester’s performance last year was an aberration and not regression. I don’t think we can assume that Lester is going to be that 3.30 FIP pitcher forever. If he repeats last year, he’s an average starter. And the current 4/5 have potential to be 5.00+ ERA pitchers. This is not to mention that if one of the top 3 goes down for any significant stretch of time, there’s no one to replace him. That might not be super likely, but definitely a possibility. I mean, is this not a realistic outcome?

I think people are underestimating how bad our pitching could be next year. Like, bottom third bad.

Cubs need a front-line starting pitcher, no question. Hence, my support for a Yu Darvish signing, even though I’m less enthusiastic than most about adding another 30+ year old arm to a monster contract (one must adjust to the needs of the moment from time to time; 2018 matters). Even if Arrieta was no longer that guy overall, he at least faked one for stretches of a year. To understate, the Cubs could use that for 2018, largely because winning the NL Central and its rotating cast of teams deciding to be shitty is not much of an accomplishment anymore. Sights should be set on beating the Dodgers, the last hurrah of the Natinals, winning the World Series, that kind of stuff, not merely getting past a diminished Cardinals organization and a Brewer team misapprehending its own talent level in what should be a very foolish attempt to try to get back to its heyday 8 years ago.

dm is right that it’s probably closer than it should be right now, which is bullshit if this Cubs team is serious about being among the best of the best every year.

FWIW, the FIPs that JKV listed for Hendricks and Lester were pretty much exactly what each of them did last season. The Quintana FIP he listed was about half a run worse, but more in line with his ERA. I’d expect it the other way, but it wouldn’t be that difficult to believe the way he listed either. Chatwood and Monty at 5 seems a bit high to me, but again, neither of them are very good so it’s definitely within reason and it’s not like the Cubs have anyone to replace them if one or both of them suck. Add in the 20 or so spot starts that teams typically get from a 6th starter and this rotation won’t be very good (it shouldn’t be too bad either). I think the more important point being made is that the top three are pretty close to what they did last season. I’d hardly call what happened with them last year worst case. For a pitcher a worst case is almost always an FIP higher than 5.

Didn’t the Cubs only have a two or three game lead over the Brewers in the first ZiPS projected standings for 2018 that Dan shared toward the end of last year? The Cubs added only some minor contributors since then and the Brewers have added two significant pieces. I probably overreacted when I said the Brewers were definitely better, but after thinking about it awhile, I do think they’re better, but not by all that much. I’d probably give them a game or two advantage over the Cubs, but if the Cubs pick up Yu then I think it swings back in favor of the Cubs by a game or two.

I don’t recall that ZiPS, but the current Fangraphs 2018 team projections are not very bullish on the Brewers, even with the additions of Cain and Yelich. Has the Cubs projected for 47.5 fWAR and the Brewers for 30.9. That seems low for Milwaukee, although I would argue not by a great deal (as I am not all that impressed with the collection of talent assembled there) and perhaps a bit high for the Cubes right now. Add Darvish and 47.5 seems much easier to reach (and maybe surpass, which is what they need to do for me to stop being irritated with them).

But even without the FG projections, I’ve never really thought the Brewers were all that good. Last year seemed horseshit to me. Yelich is a strong add (although not as game-changing as everyone seems to think, especially if he moves to a corner OF spot), but I don’t believe Cain is going to be nearly as good as he’s been in the past and he’ll be a liability before we know it. I’m not a believer in the Thames/Shaw breakouts, and as uninspiring as the Cubs rotation can look at present, the Brewers is far worse imo. They have some good players there, no question, but as of now they lack any true elite talent. And I just don’t fear teams that don’t have any elite players.

And while the Cubs don’t have near as many elite players as they should imo, they still have some. And still plenty of good players. And it makes a big difference.

I mean, maybe I’m stupid wrong about this, but I just don’t come away all that impressed or scared of the Brewers, and I do not buy at all that they’re better than the Cubs.

It has the Cubs at 87 wins and the Brewers at 84 wins. Based on moves so far this season I expect ZiPS will have the Brewers slightly ahead at this point (a game or two). The Brewers took a big step forward last year and the Cubs took a pretty big step back. The Brewers lost nobody and the Cubs lost two pitchers and replaced them with (so far) a crappy pitcher and a reliever.

I used fWAR, but you prefer win totals, then Fangraphs projections has the Cubs at 92 right now and the Brewers at 77. As I said with the fWAR projections, seems a little low for the Brewers and a little high for the Cubs, but not by much, imo. Cubs are the more talented, better team at this point, although not nearly enough to realistically expect another World Series, which is what they should be working harder to achieve.

Fangraphs is using the sum of the projected WAR to get those win totals (if I recall, Fangraphs uses 48.6 wins as replacement level so 48.6+whatever that projected WAR total was and there’s your 92). Fangraphs has 3 projections that are published to the site: Steamer, ZiPS and the Fans. To my knowledge, there hasn’t been a Steamer projected standings yet and there may not be. I know there hasn’t been a final ZiPS one since ZiPS hasn’t finished publishing the player projections. BPro will have one using PECOTA in about a month, but until then and when the ZiPS one is published by Dan, the one from November is the best we can do to estimate where the teams are projected at.

It took me all last season to finally realize the Brewers are pretty good. They’re not great by any means, but they’re even better this year. The Cubs have been moving backwards the last two seasons and aren’t all that impressive right now. They’re good and maybe even good enough to win the shitty NL Central, but that’s about it. Maybe they’re good enough to do that.

dmick89: Fangraphs is using the sum of the projected WAR to get those win totals (if I recall, Fangraphs uses 48.6 wins as replacement level so 48.6+whatever that projected WAR total was and there’s your 92). Fangraphs has 3 projections that are published to the site: Steamer, ZiPS and the Fans. To my knowledge, there hasn’t been a Steamer projected standings yet and there may not be. I know there hasn’t been a final ZiPS one since ZiPS hasn’t finished publishing the player projections. BPro will have one using PECOTA in about a month, but until then and when the ZiPS one is published by Dan, the one from November is the best we can do to estimate where the teams are projected at.

My bad. I forgot the rule is whichever projection system you like best is the right one to use.

(The tone there is not nearly as nasty as it will come across, btw, I’m doing the exact same thing with what I’m looking at.)

Anyway. Probably best to leave this alone. Sorry, but I can’t get behind this idea that the Brewers are to be feared. I think they’re horseshit, like I thought the Cardinals were horseshit last year, and that will bear out once the season is played. I also think the Cubs are much better than you seem think they are (though not as good as they could and should be). So, my points stand (or I stand by them or whatever). We’re on the same page with thinking the Cubs need to stop playing fuckaround offseason and maybe think about getting the most out of the best years of Kris Bryant’s career. Maybe win a couple more championships. And they’re currently not doing that.

You’re not looking at projected standings (ones that use a projection system and simulate the season many, many times). That’s what I’ve been trying to say. I’m not picking one that backs me up. I’m literally picking the only projected standings available. If we didn’t have that one, then I’d use the back of the napkin shit that Fangraphs uses when they just sum all the WAR.

And I’m saying what they’re doing is a useful guide as well, especially in terms of determining talent level, which imo, is the more important thing to figure out right now. I started with fWAR projections, which you don’t care for, and that’s fine, and moved to the win projections to give an idea of how it compares to the ZiPS shit.

I think the problem here is we’re not comparing apples to apples. To better get there, let me say I think ZiPS, in its initial projection overestimated the Brewers likely win total in 2018 by 4-5 wins. After the moves they’ve made, I can buy 84 a lot easier (although I still think that’s a bit high).

The fWAR projections are fine and quite useful at the individual level, but not that useful when you take those indivual projections and sum them up. If that’s all we had, fine, but we have the early ZiPS projections. Those are far from perfect at this point, but far superior to summing indivual WAR projections.

Can you even tell me what those are? Zips? Steamer? Fans? I can’t. Considering we don’t even know that, I’m not really sure why were arguing. We ought to at least know what we’re talking about if we’re going to compare.

And yeah, we’re not talking apples to apples here. For what it’s worth, I think both teams are basically 85 win teams for the most part. Give or take a win or two. Both are better than average, but neither would win any division other than the NL Central. Neither will win a wild card. It’s division or bust more than likely for both teams.

That’s pretty bad for where the cubs were a couple years ago while completely destroying the farm system since.

I don’t recall that ZiPS, but the current Fangraphs 2018 team projections are not very bullish on the Brewers, even with the additions of Cain and Yelich. Has the Cubs projected for 47.5 fWAR and the Brewers for 30.9. That seems low for Milwaukee, although I would argue not by a great deal (as I am not all that impressed with the collection of talent assembled there) and perhaps a bit high for the Cubes right now. Add Darvish and 47.5 seems much easier to reach (and maybe surpass, which is what they need to do for me to stop being irritated with them).

But even without the FG projections, I’ve never really thought the Brewers were all that good. Last year seemed horseshit to me. Yelich is a strong add (although not as game-changing as everyone seems to think, especially if he moves to a corner OF spot), but I don’t believe Cain is going to be nearly as good as he’s been in the past and he’ll be a liability before we know it. I’m not a believer in the Thames/Shaw breakouts, and as uninspiring as the Cubs rotation can look at present, the Brewers is far worse imo. They have some good players there, no question, but as of now they lack any true elite talent.And I just don’t fear teams that don’t have any elite players.

And while the Cubs don’t have near as many elite players as they should imo, they still have some. And still plenty of good players. And it makes a big difference.

I mean, maybe I’m stupid wrong about this, but I just don’t come away all that impressed or scared of the Brewers, and I do not buy at all that they’re better than the Cubs.

It has the Cubs at 87 wins and the Brewers at 84 wins. Based on moves so far this season I expect ZiPS will have the Brewers slightly ahead at this point (a game or two). The Brewers took a big step forward last year and the Cubs took a pretty big step back. The Brewers lost nobody and the Cubs lost two pitchers and replaced them with (so far) a crappy pitcher and a reliever.

I used fWAR, but you prefer win totals, then Fangraphs projections has the Cubs at 92 right now and the Brewers at 77. As I said with the fWAR projections, seems a little low for the Brewers and a little high for the Cubs, but not by much, imo. Cubs are the more talented, better team at this point, although not nearly enough to realistically expect another World Series, which is what they should be working harder to achieve.

Fangraphs is using the sum of the projected WAR to get those win totals (if I recall, Fangraphs uses 48.6 wins as replacement level so 48.6+whatever that projected WAR total was and there’s your 92). Fangraphs has 3 projections that are published to the site: Steamer, ZiPS and the Fans. To my knowledge, there hasn’t been a Steamer projected standings yet and there may not be. I know there hasn’t been a final ZiPS one since ZiPS hasn’t finished publishing the player projections. BPro will have one using PECOTA in about a month, but until then and when the ZiPS one is published by Dan, the one from November is the best we can do to estimate where the teams are projected at.

It took me all last season to finally realize the Brewers are pretty good. They’re not great by any means, but they’re even better this year. The Cubs have been moving backwards the last two seasons and aren’t all that impressive right now. They’re good and maybe even good enough to win the shitty NL Central, but that’s about it. Maybe they’re good enough to do that.

Smokestack Lightning: My bad. I forgot the rule is whichever projection system you like best is the right one to use.

(The tone there is not nearly as nasty as it will come across, btw, I’m doing the exact same thing with what I’m looking at.)

Anyway. Probably best to leave this alone. Sorry, but I can’t get behind this idea that the Brewers are to be feared. I think they’re horseshit, like I thought the Cardinals were horseshit last year, and that will bear out once the season is played. I also think the Cubs are much better than you seem think they are (though not as good as they could and should be). So, my points stand (or I stand by them or whatever). We’re on the same page with thinking the Cubs need to stop playing fuckaround offseason and maybe think about getting the most out of the best years of Kris Bryant’s career. Maybe win a couple more championships. And they’re currently not doing that.

You’re not looking at projected standings (ones that use a projection system and simulate the season many, many times). That’s what I’ve been trying to say. I’m not picking one that backs me up. I’m literally picking the only projected standings available. If we didn’t have that one, then I’d use the back of the napkin shit that Fangraphs uses when they just sum all the WAR.

And I’m saying what they’re doing is a useful guide as well, especially in terms of determining talent level, which imo, is the more important thing to figure out right now. I started with fWAR projections, which you don’t care for, and that’s fine, and moved to the win projections to give an idea of how it compares to the ZiPS shit.

I think the problem here is we’re not comparing apples to apples. To better get there, let me say I think ZiPS, in its initial projection overestimated the Brewers likely win total in 2018 by 4-5 wins. After the moves they’ve made, I can buy 84 a lot easier (although I still think that’s a bit high).

The fWAR projections are fine and quite useful at the individual level, but not that useful when you take those indivual projections and sum them up. If that’s all we had, fine, but we have the early ZiPS projections. Those are far from perfect at this point, but far superior to summing indivual WAR projections.

Can you even tell me what those are? Zips? Steamer? Fans? I can’t. Considering we don’t even know that, I’m not really sure why were arguing. We ought to at least know what we’re talking about if we’re going to compare.

And yeah, we’re not talking apples to apples here. For what it’s worth, I think both teams are basically 85 win teams for the most part. Give or take a win or two. Both are better than average, but neither would win any division other than the NL Central. Neither will win a wild card. It’s division or bust more than likely for both teams.

That’s pretty bad for where the cubs were a couple years ago while completely destroying the farm system since.

Yu Darvish should definitely sign with the Brewers. Not just because they get a whole lot more interesting, but because Milwaukee remains the most underrated city in the U.S.

this i don’t understand at all

First off these guys (95% of them) don’t settle in to their communities when they sign or get traded somewhere new. they live in hotels and airplanes for half the fucking year. it really doesn’t matter which city their mansion or gilded high rise apartment is in.
Second, for Darvish in particular, I’m pretty sure Milwaukee = any other US city. If you were a professional and being recruited by companies in several different cities in China for example are you really going to pick based on how underrated each community is? When you’re going to be working 80 hours a week?

I work with a lot of folks here on H1-B visas, and most draw distinctions among American cities. That said, I doubt any would call Milwaukee underrated. And it would probably take a substantial raise and promotion for them to consider it over New York or San Francisco.

I work with a lot of folks here on H1-B visas, and most draw distinctions among American cities. That said, I doubt any would call Milwaukee underrated. And it would probably take a substantial raise and promotion for them to consider it over New York or San Francisco.

Even if they travel a lot for work, I don’t think they probably travel live the way an MLB player must do.

Sure, people will have preferences for a favorite city but I just can’t see it mattering that much when the experience of playing for an MLB team is pretty similar no matter what team/city you’re in. (Not talking about winning team vs loser, big market vs small — more the endless treadmill of hotel, airport, stadium clubhouse, rinse and repeat. etc. etc. no matter which of the 30 teams you happened to sign with).

That’s also true. Most of my colleagues and I travel a bunch for work, but where we live is important for the weekends and a place you wouldn’t mind being on a local project. Where you live is probably even less important for people guaranteed to work every weekend.

So Steamer must have the Cubs way better than the Brewers. I’m still not sure how it could have them that much better to get the roughly 15 game advantage the average of the two have. That would mean about 30 wins better per Steamer.

I wish PECOTA came out earlier, but I guess later is best right now since so many free agents remain unsigned.

I grew up in Redskins country so I probably should not be this surprised, but here we are.

The line I saw that annoyed me the most for some reason was some asshat mock congratulating this move as the last move in ending racism forever. I guess we should stop locking up murderers, that last guy they locked up ended homicide forever.

Seriously though I went to this place (http://cafebenelux.com/) with a buddy of mine and it was pretty hard to fit my raging erection under the table (dying laughing). If it was across the street from my office I would weigh somewhere around 500 pounds.

I’ve seen people say things like this and I always wonder, do these people really believe that’s what is going to happen? Do they honestly think that’s the next, logical step? And also, have they paid no attention whatsoever to all of the college teams changing their names and/or logos over the last 10-20 years? Do they not see a pattern in the kind of things that are being eliminated?

There are a lot of things I don’t know, but I do know that two things are inevitable: Cleveland will someday change the name of their MLB team and in about 7000 years Washington will finally change their name and logo. Both of those things will eventually happen.

I think people are either getting dumber or more racist. I mean, I don’t think that guy thinks that will really happen to the Ravens, I’m guessing it was supposed to be a joke. A joke that’s either knowingly or unknowingly even more racist than the Chief Wahoo image.

Ed Werder @EdwerderRFA
Just finished compelling interview with #Eagles RB LeGarrette Blount. His 10 postseason TD are 7th most in NFL history. Six HOFers and then Blount. Calls Jay Ajayi his “dog” meaning good friend.

I think people are either getting dumber or more racist. I mean, I don’t think that guy thinks that will really happen to the Ravens, I’m guessing it was supposed to be a joke. A joke that’s either knowingly or unknowingly even more racist than the Chief Wahoo image.

For most of these fools I don’t think it’s about explicit racism, though the logo and those complaining about its removal both fit the bill. It’s just a matter of “nobody tells ME what to do” and that means that any sort of logic doesn’t apply. Saying “The Audubon Society is next” is a childish argument, but so is any argument for a mascot.

And it sure is a good thing WAS didn’t trade Cousins to SF last year. Yes they would have gotten at least a first round pick (instead of the third KC gave up), but then they might not have had that great 7-9 season.

Mike Jones @ByMikeJones
Always remember, Cousins in 2015 asked for 19M per, with 44M guaranteed over life of four-year deal. Skins said no, then tagged him back to back years (20M, 24M). #OnlyInWashington

And then signed an older QB for $94million ($71 guaranteed) over four years. (dying laughing)

The only smart thing WAS has done in the last decade was hire Scot McCloughan, who started turning that franchise around. Then they went out of their way to run him out of town so they could fuck it up again.

Troy
2:04 Thoughts on what the Brewers have done? Will they add another SP and should they?
Keith Law
2:05 I don’t think they’re serious division contenders unless they add a real SP. And I don’t understand making those two big moves without addressing the rotation.

I think he ends up going to the Twins or Rangers, but is clearly waiting to see if the Dodgers or Yankees can shed some payroll so he can sign there. I’ll say 6/150 with the Rangers, followed by the Brewers acquiring Chris Archer and effectively eliminating the Cubs from contention.

That’s how I read it, but it’s been a couple days since then. The owners are just taking advantage of what the players have allowed them to. The players will have to stand up and demand a better CBA next time.

At some point the players are going to have to acknowledge that the real problem is the 6 years of service time. They have never cared, so long as all that money saved on young players was funneled to vets. Now that has dried up, but it’s still difficult to envision any change to the system. The owners won’t budge without a war, which would require the vets to sacrifice for something that won’t benefit them directly.

Yu Darvish is still on the radar for both the Cubs and Dodgers, though with some caveats. Chicago “seem to be hoping that Darvish will choose them for reasons that are not economic,” which implies that Darvish would drop his asking price to play for a World Series contender.

I guess I see it differently. The cubs are borderline contenders (they’re good, but far from great). If that rumor is accurate, it means the cubs are hoping Darvish will choose them for a reason (contender) that applies to nearly every team still interested in him. To be honest, it doesn’t make any sense when I put it that way, which leads me to seriously question the accuracy of that rumor.

Out of the teams realistically in pursuit (CHC, MIN, MIL), the Cubs have arguably the best five year outlook. I get that it doesn’t seem as rosy as it did before 2017, but I think that also assumes every breakout for MIL is real and every regression we saw for the Cubs is also real. I’m not sure I buy that.

All that said, they really need Darvish or Arrieta, because starting pitching isn’t coming from within for at least a few years.

Yeah, when you have no pitching in the minors whatsoever, I’m not sure how rosy the future can be. Offensively they should at least be adequate and will probably be above average to well above average for at least a few years. Pitching? Well, not so much.

As for teams interested in Darvish who can entice him to sign by the team being a contender, the only team that I don’t think is a legitimate contender is Texas. The Dodgers obviously are. So are the Yankees. The Brewers are. The Twins are and so are the Cubs.

I haven’t read every word like a true statfag… Have we already discussed the fact that the LAD/NYY thing was simply floated by Yu’s agent to try to get CHI, MIN and TEX to up the offer?

As far as pitching prospects go, I’m OK with the team not putting much resource into that group. I remember wanting the Cubs to draft Gray instead of Bryant, but that was the turning point for me. Position prospects fail too, but Mark Prior, Juan Cruz, Angel Guzman, Bobby Brownlie, Mark Pawalek, Sean Gallagher, Donnie Veal, Jose Ceda and probably a few more I’m forgetting have shifted my views.

I don’t think anyone really knows how strong the interest is from the Dodgers and Yankees. Seems clear both teams need to shed some payroll before they could make it happen so while those are his preferred destinations, I think both are unlikely.

I don’t have an issue with the way the Cubs have built their farm system (#PositionPlayersFirst). I’m a little disappointed the Cubs haven’t been able to develop more pitching and I wish the Cubs had more than Justin Wilson to show for all the players they lost in trades.

I don’t know that NYY or LAD have ever been realistic destinations as both teams are trying to avoid another consecutive year of busting the luxury tax limit. Neither team seems particularly aggressive about moving enough salary to fit a front line SP. TEX also has been pretty transparent that their position on the win curve and financial situation basically rules them out.

I’ll be pissed if the Cubs don’t land one of Darvish or Arrieta, but their market has been pretty limited, and I assume the front office doesn’t want to bid against itself. Their biggest mistake since 2011 has been going into the 2017 season without enough quality SP; I don’t think they’ll make the same mistake again, even if it’s taking a frustratingly long time.

So the Padres are giving away “Cubs buster” shirts at a CHC-SD game this year…

Not really.
The Padres can’t ever seem to let this go. It’s one thing for their fans to talk about ‘84 — OK, fine, they won — but for the team’s marketing department to “celebrate” it? Ridiculous.But it’s all right now, I learned my lesson well. You see, you can’t please everyone, so you got to please yourself — Rick Nelson, “Garden Party”
by Al Yellon on Jan 26, 2018 | 3:43 PM up reply

The quote of his makes me cringe…

I was there too.
SDSJM is correct.
Friends of mine had nails thrown at them. The fans were disgusting.But it’s all right now, I learned my lesson well. You see, you can’t please everyone, so you got to please yourself — Rick Nelson, “Garden Party”
by Al Yellon on Feb 2, 2018 | 10:02 AM up reply

Based purely on Alvin’s and SDJSM’s online history, that’s totally understandable. Although I do wonder where the nails came from…

I’m not remotely surprised, but it’s kind of pathetic that Yellon cares what the Padres are doing for marketing based on a postseason series 24 years ago.

The Cubs won a goddamn World Series in 2016. The Padres have never won one. That kind of shit should roll off his back. There’s no reason for Cubs fans to get butthurt about anything another team says or does.

If you beat a team in the playoffs or finish ahead of them in the regular season, it’s one of the things you kind of get to make fun of the other team about. Not sure it’s really that difficult to understand, but Alvin and the rest of the people at BCB are essentially oversized 3 year olds.

I was on my phone when I replied here, but I said offensively. You're looking at offensive plus defense. The Cubs non-pitchers ranked 2nd best in the NL in wRC+ last year, just ahead of the Cardinals and a couple other teams. I said they'd be at least adequate, which assumes a really good offensive core that would at least be around average even if several players underperform. I also said probably above average to well above average.

No, it’s not the best offense in the league. Wasn’t last year and probably won’t be this season.

I wonder how much this offseason will have an impact on Bryce Harper’s free agency next year. I wonder if one of the reasons owners are trying to keep salaries down this year is next year’s free agent class.

We would kill for some snow out here, even beyond the ski area economy. We’ve had just one significant rain/snowfall in like three months, if this keeps up the summer is going to be a literal inferno around here.

dmick89:
I wonder how much this offseason will have an impact on Bryce Harper’s free agency next year. I wonder if one of the reasons owners are trying to keep salaries down this year is next year’s free agent class.

I think this is a pretty clear factor. Teams are looking to stay under the luxury tax cap.

Is there a list of all the NFL team sayings? I never knew about “Skol” or “fly eagles fly” before. I was going to start mocking these teams, but then I remembered the Bears have “bear down” so I guess people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.

At this point, it wouldn’t be a surprise if WAS hired a hit man to kill Cousins.

More accurately, they would lowball the first two hit men that they contacted, but they point WAS to someone who will finally agree work for them for three times as much. Then a month later they find out he’s a fed (dying laughing)

All that winning they did pushed them past all the elite players. I’m assuming they address their biggest need (interior OL) in free agency and try to trade down in the first round. No trades on Fanspeak, though

What are your thoughts on Quenton Nelson being a top 10 pick? I just can’t get my head around taking a G with that high of a pick. He would basically need to be the next Logan Mankins or Jahri Evans to be worth that in my mind.

The NFL has changed. Teams have figured out how important athleticism is along the defensive line, so now right tackles have to be as good as left tackles. They’re emphasizing interior pressure, so guards have to be as good as tackles.

David DeCastro and Zach Martin were the two best interior OL prospects I’d ever seen. Nelson’s better. He’d instantly upgrade any NFL OL.

The other thing is that he’s one of the very few elite players in this draft. Most years, there are 5-7 elite prospects. This year has 3…maybe 5. The QBs are probably the only thing keeping Nelson out of the top 5 picks.

The thing that sticks out about the McDaniels thing is the situations. Common sense says NE dangled the head coaching job in front of him to make him back out of the IND deal, but is 2019/20 NE a better situation than IND right now?

In NE, you’re following possibly the best coach of all time and picking the replacement for possibly the best QB of all time. And you inherit the most spoiled fanbase of all time.

Yeah, IND’s roster isn’t great, but they’re poised for a quick turnaround and you get Andrew Luck or one of the top QBs in this draft with the No. 3 pick.

Not only that, it’s not going to do shit. I can’t stand McDonald’s, but it’s not going to do me any good to stand outside the place and boo them every time they open the delivery window. I’m just going to look like a dumbass.

There was a significant amount of time when I thought the Cubs would be better served by simply releasing him, and I was certainly proven wrong as the season progressed. I think this is the primary reason I’m not a general manager.

Nate Jackson @NathanSerious
For context: Josh McDaniels was hired by the Broncos in 2009. I was on the roster & home for the off-season. My parents’ landline got a voice mail from the Broncos saying that I’d been cut. I called McDaniels for an explanation. His assistant said he’d call me back. He never did.

I like the separation between the Cubs and the rest of the division. I guess I’ll take it. Huge drop in talent from the Yankees, Indians, Astros and Dodgers to the rest of the league. Not that it’s really all that surprising.

Tom Pelissero @TomPelissero
The #Panthers are not close to offering their GM job to anyone amidst multiple NFL investigations. But Lake Dawson received a second interview, sources say. He’s a strong candidate.